Homily: April 29 2016 - St. Catherine of Siena, virgin & doctor

Listen again to the opening prayer of Mass for the virgin and doctor of the Church, St. Catherine of Siena:

O God, who set Saint Catherine of Siena on fire with divine love in her contemplation of the Lord’s Passion and her service of your Church, grant, through her intercession, that your people, participating in the mystery of Christ, may ever exult in the revelation of his glory.

The Collect touches upon several characteristics of the virgin doctor’s spirituality: her meditation on the sufferings of Christ, her ardent love for God, and her service to the Church.

She wrote much: 382 letters, prayers, and a treatise entitled the Dialogue of Divine Providence.
In her letter reflecting on the Lord’s Passion, she wrote: “Remember Christ crucified..make your aim the crucified Christ; hide in the wounds of the Crucified Christ and drown in the blood of the Crucified Christ.”

Her life was filled with extraordinary mystical phenomena such as visions and revelations, raptures, mystical marriage, and the stigmata, and also great works of charity: nursing the sick and comforting prisoners in jail. She received the holy stigmata on her hands, feet and heart.  Originally, her stigmata were visible, but in humility she prayed that they not be seen by others, and her prayer was answered.  However, at her death, the stigmata reappeared.  Catherine, also lived many years, eating nothing, save the flesh and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.  Catherine also had the gift of tears, as the Lord wept at the death of Lazarus, those with the gift of tears weep in union with the sorrowful Christ for souls.

St. Catherine’s body is also totally incorrupt, and is preserved in the beautiful gothic basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome.  I visited her a few times in that amazing basilica.  I also had the honor of attending Mass on, this, her feast day, in the small chapel behind the sacristy of the basilica.  During her life, the Pope, instead of residing in Rome, resided in Avignon, France.  Rightly, St. Catherine prayed for the return of the Pope, she wrote him letters pleading with Him to return to the Holy See.  She would attend Mass make a daily pilgrimage from that small chapel to St. Peter Basilica in the Vatican.  Catherine lived to see Pope Gregory XI move the See of Peter back to Rome, in 1377.

This great saint died in Rome in 1380. Even though she barely reached the age of thirty-three her accomplishments place her among the great women of the Middle Ages.  She was proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius II in 1461. In 1970, Pope Paul VI declared St. Catherine a Doctor of the Church.

As a universal doctor, Catherine teaches all of us to fervent seek God and to serve Him with our whole hearts. Listen to her words from this morning’s office of reading’s: “You are a mystery as deep as the sea;” she says, “the more I search, the more I find, and the more I find, the more I search for you.  But I can never be satisfied; what I receive will ever leave me desiring more.  When you fill my soul, I have an even greater hunger, and I grow more famished for your light.”

May each of us like Saint Catherine be set aflame with divine love, be united to the Lord in his sufferings, and be devoted to the building up and serving his Holy Church for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Thursday - 5th Week of Easter 2016 - The Secret of Joy

Today’s short Gospel is often chosen for wedding masses by the couples, perhaps because they are hoping for a short homily due to the short length of the reading.  Most likely, and I’d like to think, it is because the couples are truly hoping for a joy filled marriage.  Jesus, in the Gospel promises joy to those who remain united to Him.

So, why are so many marriages ending in unhappiness and divorce, why does the joy of the wedding day so quickly evaporates.  Why in the last 30 years has the number of Americans taking antidepressants increased 400%? Why in the greatest country on earth are citizens unhappier than ever? What accounts for the 40 thousand suicide attempts in this country every year? When our deepest desire is for joy, why are we so joy-less?

Joy is the by-product of a life lived with God at the center. Possibly never before has a culture been so preoccupied with feeling good, pleasure-seeking, and selfish pursuits, and so far from the authentic joy that comes from God. We push God out of politics, education, and family life, and why wonder why our country is so miserable and our fellow citizens acting like beasts.

Bishop Lennon wrote a fantastic article for the universe bulletin on Marriage, titled “Marriage, a Sacrament of Conversion”.  In it he wrote that a couple will develop a shared spirituality that encompasses the whole of the married life.  If that life is centered on a false God of prosperity, prestige, or mere pursuit of the good life—they will likely reap a harvest of exhaustion and unhappiness.  But married couples who place Christ at the center of life, including Him in their weekly schedules and activities, meals, chores, conversations, parenting, work, vacations, civic responsibilities, decisions, problems, crises, accomplishments, losses—the whole of their lives become changed and charged with God’s presence.

The question is, do we really want the Joy that Jesus promises or rather the cheap, temporary, empty joy that comes from the world?  Joy is a gift from God, but it also requires a lot of work on our part.  For to obtain the Joy Jesus promises we have to become unselfish and die to ourselves—we must obey God in all things, seeking what He wants, rather than what we want.

Perhaps there is such a lack of joy in the world because Christians are failing in seeking the joy that comes from Christ.

May we open our hearts to the joy that comes from deep union with Our Lord, through the enlightening of our minds by His truth, seeking Him in fervent prayer, and perfect charity. Lord Jesus, give us this joy, for the glory of God and salvation of souls

Homily: Wednesday - 5th Week of Easter 2016 - Joy amidst controversy

Ever come home from a long hard day of work, and find the kids bickering?  Well, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, from a thousand mile journey, much of it by foot, where they had drawn thousands of Gentiles to Christ, had been stoned nearly to death, and they find some of the Christian converts from Judaism were instructing the community that “Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.” 

In the Old Testament, Gentiles could become part of God’s people through circumcision. Adult circumcision, however, is not entirely pleasant, and so this claim, we read, caused “no little dissension and debate.”

This topic really became the Church’s first serious controversy.  In the Old Testament, Gentiles could become part of God’s people through circumcision. The first followers of Christ were circumcised Jews, Jesus himself was a circumcised Jew, Paul was circumcised. And so the question arises: do the Gentiles essentially need to become Jewish first, and preserve the tenets of the Mosaic law, in order to be a faithful disciple of Jesus?  Is circumcision necessary for salvation?

So Paul, Barnabas, and some of the others journey to the apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem to discuss this topic at what is known as the Council of Jerusalem, the first Official Council of the Church.  Over the next few days we’ll hear how this issue is resolved.

But one of the most important aspects of this reading today is that while they were making their way from Antioch to Jerusalem, through Phoenicia and Samaria, Paul and Barnabas shared the stories from their first missionary journey, he told of the conversion of the Gentiles, and this brought great joy to all the brothers.  They did not allow this church controversy to get in the way of the work of God. You don’t see Paul and Barnabas demonizing the opposition, belittling the other side in the debate, in the midst of controversy he continues to spread authentic joy.

Paul gives the modern church, riddled with many controversies, a power example of authentic Christian living. We have to be very careful when controversy arises, within our church and our families, that we do not blow our differences out of proportion, that we do not demonize others, but that we continue to act in charity.

A second important insight, is that when this controversy arises, Paul doesn’t make an authoritative claim about Church policy, Paul turns to the authority of the Apostles, and points others in that direction as well.  Whenever we don’t understand a Church teaching, or have a disagreement with Church policy, we are to submit to the Apostles, who offer teaching consistent with the Gospel and Sacred Tradition.

No, Jesus never spoke directly about issues of In Vitro Fertilization, Gay Marriage, contraception, or human cloning. But the Pope and the Bishops faithfully apply the Gospel to these issues, and we are to form our minds according to their authoritative apostolic teaching.

By not allowing controversy to rob us of our Christian joy, and to subjecting ourselves to the rightful authority of the Church, we remain united to Christ, as branches to the vine. Through faith, obedience, and charity, may our earthly work bear fruit that will last unto eternity, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Tuesday - 5th Week of Easter 2016 - When the world knocks you down...

Our Easter readings from the Acts of the Apostles continue to give us stories of the amazing courage and fortitude of the early Church in spreading the Gospel.  Imagine, on his first missionary journey, Paul had already traveled hundreds of miles through treacherous mountain paths, storm-ridden seas, rapid rivers, bandit ridden lowlands.  He is preaching the Gospel up in modern day Turkey; a group of Jews appear from the south, where he had been preaching some time before, and they turn the crowds against Paul to the point where they stone him, injuring him so badly, they thought he was dead, and so they drag him out of town to be devoured by the carrion feeders.

Remember in second Corinthians, when Paul says: “Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked” well, this is probably the stoning he was referring to. Some Christian disciples gather around his body, probably to start planning his funeral, perhaps though, the pray for his resuscitation, he might have been actually dead, mind you; Paul stands up, brushes the dust off, and walks right back into the city.

Misunderstanding, slander, rejection, the trauma of physical torture, and even the threat of death---these things do not stop the apostles’ mission. One might expect the apostle to relax his mission in the face of such extreme resistance.  Paul gets up, and goes to the next town.

Not to belittle Paul’s great suffering for the Gospel, but sometimes it feels like life stones us and leaves us for dead outside of town.  The loss of a job, the death of a loved one, the betrayal of friends. Or those of us who are involved in ministry, trying to do the work of Christ, sometimes it feels like the deck is stacked against us, even some members of the Church seem to be working against us.

Authentic Christianity involves the cultivation of the virtue of fortitude.  St. Paul, said it well this last Sunday, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.”

The great apologist C.S. Lewis said, “Hardship often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”

We heard in the Gospel today, on the night before he died, Jesus promises his disciples a gift: “the gift of peace; peace, not as the world gives.”  When the world speaks of peace, it means a life without crosses, without suffering, a numbness to the suffering around us.

The Lord however promises us a peace which we can experience while carrying the cross, a peace which we can know while being crucified.  The peace that Jesus gives isn’t a nice feeling that comes from pretending that our crosses are no big deal or running away from crosses, setting them down when they get to heavy or scary or demanding or inconvenient. 

Christian peace comes from enduring our hardships with Christian faith, knowing that what suffer is for the sake of the kingdom, it is done out of love for God and love for souls. Peace is not promised to us for any task, we aren’t promised peace or success in our selfish pursuits. But peace and strength and courage are promised for the spread of the Gospel and building up of the Church.

This is a peace, St. Paul says, which “is beyond all understanding.” As we come forward to receive the Eucharist today, let us ask God for a purifying of our intentions, that our pursuits might not be out of selfish, lazy or ambitious motives, but that through our endurance of hardships for the sake of the kingdom, we may know God’s gift of peace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: April 25 2016 - St. Mark - "Pax tibi, Marce, Evangelista Meus"

Often when a new church is being built there is some memento to the current pontiff and diocesan bishop. So here at St. Clare, in the sacristy are two stained glass windows, with the coat of arms of Pope Saint John XXIII and Archbishop Hoban, who were both in office at the time Fr. Fitzgerald built the church building.  On ecclesiastical coats of arms, are often symbols of the diocese in which the priest is serving, and perhaps some other religious symbol. So, on Archbishop Hobans coat of arms, there is the heraldry for the diocese of Cleveland accompanied by the bishop’s miter with the dove of the Holy Spirit resting upon it, perhaps reminding us of the phrase “the spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring glad tidings to the poor”

The coat of arms for John XXIII was identical to the one he used as patriarch of Venice. On the upper third of the coat of arms is the winged golden lion of Venice, the symbol for the city, also the symbol for the evangelist and martyr St. Mark, whose feast is today.  The lion of Venice is usually depicted with its paw on an open book that contains the text “Pax tibi, Marce, Evangelista meus” – “Peace be to you Mark, My Evangelist”.  Venetian legend has it that, while visiting the region of Italy that would later become Venice, St. Mark was approached by an angel, greeted with those words, “Pax tibi, Marce, Evangelista meus. Hic requiescet corpus tuum” – “Peace be to you Mark, it is here that your body will rest.”

For almost 800 years, the remains of St. Mark were housed in Alexandria, the place of his martyrdom, but in 828 his body was stolen by Venetian Merchants, and brought to Venice. So Venice ultimately is the resting place of his body. Thank goodness those venetian criminals helped the angel’s prophecy come true!

St. Mark is represented as a lion because his Gospel begins with the voice of John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness.  The voice of one crying in the desert: Make ready the way of the Lord. 

The Lion is also a symbol of courage, and Saint Mark courageously faced a martyr’s death.  While he was celebrating Mass in Alexandria, his persecutors seized him, tied a rope around him and dragged him through the streets, then imprisoned and killed him.

The Entrance Antiphon, like the Gospel of the Mass, recalls the missionary apostolate mandated by Christ: “Go out to the whole world, and preach the Gospel to all creation.”

All of us are called to be lions for the Lord—full of courage, roaring the Gospel from the housetops. As the shortest of the four Gospels, Saint Mark Gospel can be read easily in a single sitting. If you’ve never done so, today would be quite a fitting day to read it straight through.  For how can we proclaim what we do not know?

May Saint Mark’s example and prayers help us to cry out the Gospel of Christ throughout the world, proclaiming it to all creation, for the Glory of God and Salvation of souls.

If anyone would like to view the stained glass windows I mentioned, feel free to visit the sacristy after Mass today, making proper reverence to the tabernacle of course, as you pass by it.

Homily: 5th Sunday of Easter 2016 - Shakespeare, Heaven, Love

On this 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, I draw for this homily some inspiration from the Bard of Stratford-on-Avon. In Act I, Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark and a group of friends are investigating the sudden appearance of the ghost of Hamlet’s father.  Each of the men have their own responses to this mysterious visitor. Horatio, Hamlet’s best friend takes the stand of the skeptic—ghost’s do not exist, this is too “wondrous strange” to be happening.  Hamlet, turns to Horatio, and utters those famous words: “there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy”

In a sense, Horatio symbolizes the modern materialist philosophy which denies the existence of God, angels and heaven.  Materialism says man is simply an animal, instead of a creature made in God’s image with soul of intellect and spirit.  Is it any wonder why more and more people are acting like animals—savage, uncaring, ruled by their passions? It’s because the world has told them that’s all they are! The world says there is no soul to cultivate, no God to worship.

Where the Catholic faith honors truth, goodness, beauty and Sabbath worship, the world knows only cold, calculated, efficiency. Hamlet’s utterance to Horatio therefore is a very Catholic thought: “there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy”, and those things exist, whether Horatio believes in them or not. Our Catholic faith even gives us a glimpse into heaven.

In our second readings, since the 2nd Sunday of Easter we’ve read these marvelous passages from the book of Revelation. The veil has been pulled back as we’ve read of the heavenly liturgy, the procession of white-robed saints, the worship of the lamb on the throne of heaven. I don’t know about you, but sometimes, as I’m celebrating Mass, it as if the veil is lifted, and you can sense the presence of the angels offering their adoration of the lamb of God in the Eucharist. Angels sing with us, and adore with us at Holy Mass. Though their presence is veiled to our earthly senses, we know they are here with us, through faith.

Well, this week the whole book of Revelation comes to a climax. That for which all of creation has longed comes to fulfillment, as God makes his dwelling in the new and eternal Jerusalem: “The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” As beautiful, and as full of amazing creatures, as it is, this world is but a precursor, a foretaste, a prologue to the new heavens and new earth that will last forever. In eternity we will dwell with God and be in his presence in a way “no earthy eye has seen, nor ear has heard”.

Again, this is in contradistinction with the earthly philosophy that says this life is all there is—the material world is all there is—our human consciousness is but a consequence of random natural forces creating the illusion of free will.  Our Christian faith, rather, not only tells us that there is an afterlife, but faith orients us to it, helps us to reach it and prepare for it.

In the first reading, Paul exhorts that early “band of brothers” the disciples to persevere in the faith. If you wish to enter the kingdom of God “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships.” In other words, only through the Cross can we reach the Resurrection; only through self-sacrificing love can we experience true Christian joy. St. Paul here offers more than “words, words, words”; he backs up his words through his own heroic endurance of hardship for the sake of the Gospel. He is imprisoned for the Gospel, undergoes journeys 1000s of miles to spread the Gospel, he is martyred for the Gospel
In this reading we are reminded once again of the crux of the Christian life. If you wish to have citizenship in the eternal heaven, you must embrace the Cross of Jesus Christ in belief and practice: orthodoxy and orthopraxis.  We must not only believe, but act in accordance with the teaching of Christ.
"I give you a new commandment... As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." Loving one another, going to the cross for one another, forgiving one another, is not a mere suggestion, it’s a commandment.  To love each other with Christ-like love, to love each other as Christ loves us, this is his commandment.

Why is this so hard for us? Well, another part of creation which the materialist philosophies explain away, is the devil.  The devil exists, not simply as a symbol for all of our psychological weaknesses and violent tendencies, but as a real being who works to lead us away from the love of God and loving like God.

The devil whispers in our souls encouragements to harbor resentments, greedily hoard our wealth, lust after flesh, indulge our every impulse.  He works to weaken our patience, self-control, and faith. He tells us that reading scripture is only for fanatics, works of charity are for other people to do.  He tempts us to exempt ourselves from the teachings of Christ because they are too hard, too inconvenient, too demanding.

The devil also works to harden our hearts towards people we are called to love.  And let’s be honest, sometimes people are hard to love. Mother Theresa said, “People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway…People who really want help may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the world your best anyway.” Sometimes it is hard to love, but to quote Shakespeare again, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

And so we need to fortify ourselves against the devil’s attacks by remaining rooted in the truth of our faith, studying the catechism, reading the scriptures, praying for protection. We must remember that “not all that glistens is gold." We need to make us of the sacramentals like scapulars and holy water and novenas. We should receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation regularly, several times a year, and receive the Eucharist weekly, several times a week if possible.  For how can we every “undergo those many hardships’ if we try to do it on our own? And each of us needs to be involved in some sort of charitable activity. It might mean volunteering at the school, or in PSR, or as an usher, lector, or member of the choir; it might mean inviting the widows on your street over for dinner or tea, but we must be doing something so our hearts do not harden toward our neighbor.

“Be not afraid of greatness”—we are called to great love of God and neighbor. God has given each of us “A heart to love, and in that heart, Courage, to make love known” to quote Macbeth. May each of us use that courage to love as we are called to by Christ, our enemy, our neighbor, and our God, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday - 4th Week of Easter 2016 - "Do not let your hearts be troubled"

Today’s Gospel reading is one of the most famous and consoling passages, it is chosen quite often for Catholic Funeral Masses.

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” Jesus gave these words to us on the night before he died for us and for our salvation. He said these words knowing what would happen in the following few hours and on Good Friday.  His disciples would see him arrested, mocked, tortured, crucified, and killed.  “Don’t let your hearts be troubled” as you witness these things. How could their hearts not be troubled, as they saw their Lord expire and breath his last? Yet he wished for them, not to let the sufferings which they witnessed obscure that for which he suffered.

Why is this reading chosen so often by grieving family members for Catholic funeral Masses? When overwhelmed with tremendous grief, our faith pierces through grief, transforms grief. Faith helps us to gaze into the promised eternity, where every tear will be wiped away—where the promises of Our Lord will be fulfilled, promises of eternal life and resurrection.

Faith enabled Paul and Barnabas in our first reading, to embrace the hardship of evangelization: the anxiety of unknown places & unknown peoples, physical dangers, mental exhaustion—all of it is worth it, because when our earthly labors and earthly sufferings are done for God, we will reap eternal reward.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled”. These words of Jesus are not a suggestion, but a command—for his disciples and for all of us.  We are to view all of our earthly sufferings through the eyes of faith, that this world is but a preparation for the next. We are to have untroubled hearts when we face our own serious illnesses, when we see loved ones pass away, when earthly leaders persecute us, when we are called upon to spread the Gospel to unknown people in unknown lands. 

Having “untroubled hearts” does not mean we have to be Pollyanna, ignoring the corruption in the world, or the divisions in the Church, pretending like our suffering isn’t that bad. We aren’t to view the world through rose-colored glasses, but through the lens of faith, which sees all things—our sufferings, our trials, even earthly death—from the divine perspective.

Not naïve optimism, but faith, preserves our hearts from becoming overwhelmed by earthly suffering. Faith, orients us to eternity, helping us even to embrace suffering, like Our Lord, for the good of others, enabling us to observe all he commands, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.